[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 107 (Tuesday, June 25, 2019)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E838]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 COMMERCE, JUSTICE, SCIENCE, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 
                                  2020

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                         HON. DEBRA A. HAALAND

                             of new mexico

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, June 20, 2019

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the state of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 3055) making 
     appropriations for the Departments of Commerce and Justice, 
     Science, and Related Agencies for the fiscal year ending 
     September 30, 2020, and for other purposes:

  Ms. HAALAND. Mr. Chair, I rise in support of my two amendments to the 
Interior and Environment Appropriations bill for FY20, which were 
included in en bloc amendment No. 5.
  I thank my friend Chairwoman Betty McCollum for supporting these 
amendments, and for the work she and Ranking Member Joyce have done to 
increase funding for programs that are vitally important to Indian 
Country. Despite their good efforts, due to budget constraints, there 
is still work to be done to meet the needs of our Tribal Nations.
  The United States Constitution defines the unique government-to-
government relationship between the federal government and Tribal 
Nations. The federal trust responsibility originates from the days when 
Native Americans were forced to surrender tribal land and suffered loss 
of life and the removal/resettlement of one-fifth of Tribes from their 
original homelands. The United States signed 375 treaties, passed laws, 
and instituted policies that promised to safeguard Native Americans' 
right to self-governance and to enable delivery of essential services 
in Indian Country.
  One of these services is health care. During the latter part of the 
nineteenth century, the federal government expanded health care for 
Native Americans due to overcrowding at boarding schools and the spread 
of disease. It was only in 1968, when Indian health care lagged behind 
the rest of the country, was the Indian Health Service (IHS) designated 
in an effort to fulfill the trust responsibility. Over the last two 
centuries, the failure of the federal government to adequately address 
American Indian/Alaskan Native (AI/AN) wellbeing led to this population 
being ranked in the bottom of health, education, and employment.
  Congress has continued to inadequately fund Indian Country at 
disproportionately lower levels than funding for services for any other 
population. IHS is currently only funded at 40 percent of the need, and 
the average per capita spending for an IHS patient is only about $3,800 
compared to the national average of $9,523. During fiscal year 2019, 
IHS' budgetary need was $30 billion, but the enacted level only 
amounted to $5 billion, which is $25 billion less than the amount 
needed to properly administer health care in Indian Country for 2.2 
million AI/ANs across 573 federally recognized Tribes.
  Urban Indian health care is an area of particular need. Approximately 
70 percent of AI/ANs live in urban areas, but they lack access to 
adequate health care services because only 1 percent of the chronically 
underfunded IHS budget has been allocated to urban Indian health care. 
Currently urban Indian health is estimated to only meet 22 percent of 
the need of the roughly one million urban Al/ANs who live in urban 
Indian health care services areas.
  My amendment seeks to draw attention to this area of serious need. 
While we are making strides with this bill, an additional $35,000,000 
would help provide resources for health care services needed by the 
urban Indian population.
  Tribes are also in desperate need of resources for tribal courts and 
law enforcement. AI/AN suffer from one of the highest rates of crime 
and victimization of any group of people in the United States. Although 
overall funding for public safety in Indian Country has increased, it 
does not come close to meeting the public safety needs in Indian 
Country or the needs to police and protect Indian Country, especially 
related to tribal courts and law enforcement. My amendment highlights 
that an additional $63 million is needed for tribal courts and $113 
million for law enforcement to give AI/ANs living on tribal lands 
access to basic public safety services that are readily available for 
other Americans living outside of Indian Country.
  I appreciate the good work done by Chairwoman McCollum and Ranking 
Member Joyce to begin to address these pressing needs in Indian 
Country, and I thank them for their support of my amendments. I look 
forward to continuing to work with them and Chairwoman Lowey and 
Ranking Member Granger to ensure that the federal government fulfills 
its trust obligation to Tribes and that Tribes have the resources they 
need to provide services and opportunity to their members.

                          ____________________